Menu Bar

Sunday, June 19, 2011

First dispatch from India

The IHI team reunited at the Chennai airport, thankful that everyone is safe and sound. We spend the day exploring Chennai, taking in the sights, sounds, and smell of India. The heat is one of the few things we are still adjusting to (the cold A/C for Julia), the other being the very aggressive auto-rickshaw driver in their dealings (and driving).

After a day of acclimatization, we embarked on the Duronto Express train to Coimbature. The six-hour train ride went by fast with food, charades, fun, and food, and more food. Kalai akka from Families for Children came to pick us up at the train station. We toured the campuses – main campus and a separate boys/special needs campus. We spent some time playing with the girls in the playground, and in the baby room.

We were super lucky in that we get to attend a wedding of a FFC alumni. The wedding was well attended by FFC staff and children. The wedding was a testament of the wonderful works of FFC. We then spent the afternoon in the baby room playing with the children and even got to help feed the babies!

This morning we had a great time playing soccer, monkey in the middle with the boys. They amazed us with their acrobatic flips and summersaults, breakdancing, and tree-climbing abilities. We had such a wonderful time together all being kids.

We are having a wonderful time in India, more on our experiences in our next posts!